Kenneth Scott
Kenneth John "Ken" Scott is an American journalist, politician, and communications expert who currently serves as the Progressive National Committee's Director of Communications. Kenneth was born on February 8th 1972 in Bemidji, Minnesota, to farming parents. Both of his parents were Democrats, and the last in a long family line of blue-collar workers. He was bought up as a farmer, while also attending school in Bemidji. Upon graduating from high school, he left his parents’ farm at 18 and went to study at the University of Minnesota for a degree in Journalism. He funded his studies by working two part-time jobs, one as a freelance writer for various newspapers in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and the other as a fast-food restaurant cashier. He graduated with a relatively good degree in Journalism at the age of 21 and went to work at the Star Tribune newspaper as a State Political Correspondent, before being moved to Washington DC as their Hill Correspondent. When he was 27, he was offered a job by the US arm of the Guardian newspaper, as their DC correspondent. He accepted the position and became a regular face at Capitol Hill press briefings, leading to him becoming well known in various political circles.A registered Democrat at the time, Kenneth had his eye on entering politics in some form throughout his career. His working-class upbringing meant that he felt he had a strong grasp of working class issues, and wanted to put that experience to good use. When he was 32, he was approached by the Democratic Senator from Washington, who asked Kenneth to be his Director of Communications for her re-election bid in the 2004 general election. Kenneth accepted the position and took a leave of absence from the Guardian and co-ordinated the Senator’s media strategy in Seattle. Her re-election bid was successful in the face of a Republican win in the general election, and Kenneth was offered a place in her team as her main PR advisor. In the end, Kenneth rejected the position to return to his journalism career in DC but decided to buy a house in Seattle. In 2006, he left the Guardian newspaper and moved to Seattle full time to run for the Seattle City Council in 2007. He won the local Democratic primary in a Republican-held ward and won election to the council by a very narrow margin. Whilst on the council, he largely fell in line with the Seattle Democrats and voted through various measures aimed at helping working class people. One of the main causes he championed was access to housing, as his ward had the largest population of homeless people in the city. He drafted a measure which would provide temporary accommodation for homeless people and would provide money to assist them in finding permanent housing, funded by a small tax increase on the highest earners. The measure passed 5-4, and Kenneth won re-election in 2011. In 2014, he was approached by an Independent candidate from the State of New York by the name of James Harper, who needed a campaign manager, having unsuccessfully run for office in New York multiple times, and this time was running for the House of Representatives. Kenneth was initially puzzled by the young Independent as to why they weren’t running as a Democrat, but accepted the job nonetheless. He resigned his seat on the city council a year earlier than he intended, as he didn’t want to run for a second term, and assisted Harper’s efforts in New York. He helped Harper secure the backing of the Working Families Party, and he was subsequently elected as Senator by a very narrow margin of 43% to 42% over the Republican candidate, while the Democratic candidate won 14%. Kenneth then accepted the position as Harper’s Chief Strategist and Communications Director on Capitol Hill. This came at a cost, however, and his work on Harper's campaign had alienated many of his colleagues in the Democratic Party. In 2016, Kenneth left his job in Harper's office to co-ordinate the Democratic campaign on the West Cost out of Seattle. As the primary season dragged on, however, he became more and more disillusioned with what the Democratic Party was turning into, nor did he feel comfortable supporting any of the Democratic Primary candidates, as all of them were pretty dismal, in his view. He left his job at the Democratic Party and offered his services to the Washington Progressives, where he worked as a PR adviser for the Progressive's West Coast operations, a move that further alienated his contacts within the Democrats. After the 2016 election, Kenneth was promoted from his position in Seattle to Director of Communications for the Progressive National Committee. In his view, the Democrats have all but abandoned the working classes and liberal voters, and sees that the Progressives have a chance to undercut both the Republicans and the Democrats to become major force in US politics. Despite his position in the PNC, Kenneth does have the aspiration to run for Congress in the future.